Communists unveiled a bust of Josef Stalin in central Russia on Friday despite a Kremlin battle against the late Soviet dictator's hero status among some Russians.

About 60 elderly people attended the unveiling of the golden bust outside a party office in Penza, 550km (340 miles) southeast of Moscow.

World War Two veterans, their chests covered in medals, placed flowers at the bust, portraying Stalin's head and shoulders in military uniform, and praised Stalin for leading Russia to victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two.

"Many veterans came to us and said 'While we are still alive we want to lay flowers at the statue of the Generalissimo'," regional party spokesman Vladimir Simadin said, using Stalin's title as head of the Red Army.

He said it was Penza's first monument to Stalin since the once ubiquitous statues to the leader were torn down during the late 1950s after he was denounced by Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev. Stalin died in 1953.

Communists have erected a number of statues across Russia in recent years.

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"We cannot forget our history. This was without doubt a great era for our country!" Simadin said by telephone.

Half of Russians saw Stalin's leadership as positive for Russia, according to a recent poll by the independent Moscow-based Levada Center. Stalin, who was born in Georgia, was voted Russia's third most popular historical figure in a 2008 nationwide poll.

But many ordinary Russians are outraged by any praise for a leader whose purges and forced collectivisation killed millions of people in the 1930s, many of them in labour camps.

Stalin's legacy remains a sensitive issue. Russian officials tried during Vladimir Putin's 2000-2008 presidency to whitewash the dictator's crimes in textbooks and underline his role in industrialising the country, but President Dmitry Medvedev has announced a new "de-Stalinisation" drive.

Maria Lipman, a political analyst with the Carnegie Moscow Center, said the unveiling of the bust showed nostalgia for the loss of Russia's great power status.

"As a citizen I feel disgusted when I hear anything except condemnation of Stalin but I do not think that the danger is that the cult or worship of Stalin could come back," she said.